As wildfires rage, hunters and campers face fines for entering these California forests
The Forest Service is closing millions of acres of Northern California’s public forests beginning Monday.
On Thursday, the federal agency announced that due to fires burning uncontrolled across the north state, individuals caught entering nine national forests could face fines of up to $5,000 beginning at midnight Monday.
“We do not take this decision lightly and understand how this impacts people who enjoy recreating on the National Forests,” Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien said in a written statement. “These temporary closures are necessary to ensure public and firefighter safety, as well as reduce the potential for new fire starts. I want to thank the public for your patience during this challenging situation.
The closure, which extends to at least through Labor Day weekend, includes a large swath of USDA Forest Service lands from south of Lake Tahoe to the Oregon border and west nearly to the Pacific Ocean.
The closures encompass all of the Klamath, Plumas, Shasta-Trinity, Lassen, Six Rivers, Mendocino, and Tahoe national forests as well as the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit around Lake Tahoe. The Eldorado National Forest, where the Caldor Fire is burning uncontrolled, is already closed.
The closure comes at what’s traditionally one of the busiest times of year for public lands use.
This weekend marks the start of the deer-hunting season for much of the north state, and thousands of campers, equestrians, 4x4 enthusiasts, anglers and backpackers head to the woods over Labor Day weekend for the last summer holiday.
The closure order outraged U.S. Rep Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, who called it “an abuse that should not be tolerated.”
“These lands are owned by the people for the use of the people,” LaMalfa said in an emailed statement. “The idea that because the Forest Service has done a terrible job managing their lands and thinning the forest, they can exclude the public is offensive to anyone with basic common sense. They made a problem and now the public will pay the price.”
In a call with reporters Friday, Forest Service officials said they didn’t want a repeat of last year where dozens of campers in the Sierra National Forest were trapped by the Creek Fire and needed to be airlifted, as well as other close calls involving people recreating in the woods and needing a helicopter to rescue them as the flames bore down.
“I think we look at those examples from last year, and feel the need to protect people, and be a little bit cautious until we feel those conditions change a little bit until resources become more available,” said Anthony Scardina, deputy regional forester for the Forest Service’s California region.
Deer hunters concerned
The hope, he said, is that conditions will improve and the woods will be able to reopen.
The federal closure follows two of California’s largest private forest companies — Sierra Pacific Industries, and W.M. Beaty & Associates — closing nearly 2 million acres of private timberlands to public access earlier this summer due to what the companies’ foresters described as unprecedented dry conditions.
Last year, during the worst fire season in modern history, the Forest Service took the unprecedented step in September of closing all of its 20 million acres of California forests to the public for nearly two weeks.
Four Southern California national forests — the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino — stayed closed through early October.
Hunters, many of whom wait years to get permits in specially weighted lotteries to hunt prime territories, were especially frustrated by last year’s forest closures.
Chuck Bonham, the director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said officials are weighing whether to petition state hunting regulators to set up a system so that deer hunters may be able to get a refund for their hunting permits, should the forests remain closed through the season.
With few exceptions, deer hunting permits are nonrefundable.
“Our hope, certainly, is that deer hunters and other public land hunters will have the opportunity to hunt at some point and participate in their favorite seasons,” Bonham said in an email. “But we also are prepared to support our deer, elk, pronghorn and sheep hunters who have done so much for conservation over the years. We’ll see how the seasons play out.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 9:39 AM with the headline "As wildfires rage, hunters and campers face fines for entering these California forests."